


12.22 - Wedding (with 12.20 - Uniform, 12.23 - Year, 12.24 - Zigzag)

by dontbefancy



Series: Christmas Traditions - Klaine Advent 2014 [21]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 12:30:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2850902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontbefancy/pseuds/dontbefancy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, I got stuck on 'uniform' and prompts kept coming as well as the busyness of the season. When I sat down to write, it was clear they'd all fit nicely together in this ARV verse finale. This time, it's probably better if you've read ARV, bc this focuses more on Adrian than Kurt and Blaine, although obviously they're very, very present. (And yes, some day soon, I'll get ARV and all of its parts up here on AO3)</p>
            </blockquote>





	12.22 - Wedding (with 12.20 - Uniform, 12.23 - Year, 12.24 - Zigzag)

The notion of a Christmas wedding hadn't gone over well. At least at first. And then, ideas started flowing and traditions of years' past morphed into traditions anew for the couple.

A small venue in Greenwich Village was booked, the invitations were sent and the response was so positive, the beautiful venue almost had to be changed for fear of space concerns.

But things worked out as they often do, and on December 23rd, seats filled with family and friends, firemen in full dress uniform, momentarily stealing attention from the guests of honor who would soon be arriving at the back of the grand ballroom.

"C'mere, Ade. Your boutonniere is looking funny." Kurt stepped in front of his son, who was inches taller than him now, and had been for many years. He avoided Adrian's gaze to fix the lapel flower that really didn't need much fixing. He tutted and fidgeted, quirked his mouth and looked down at his own lapel to make sure everything was in perfect order.

"Papa… " Ade's hands cupped Kurt's face to still him. To get his attention. A habit that had lessened over the years, of course, but one that was born when they were born anew together.

Kurt obeyed Adrian's plea.

_Be still. Be with me for one more moment._

Adrian's eyes were alight with nerves and excitement, with a million questions about what was ahead of him and the confidence that he knew it would all be okay. Because he'd been taught about love and marriage, about death and rebirth, about sticking it out and laughing through the grime of it all.

Adrian met his bride right after college when she came to photograph a gallery opening where his work and work of a few of his friends was being shown. He was late for another appointment, and she was filling in for a boss who'd suddenly fallen ill. Elianna didn't know her camera because she was a writer for the trade magazine, not a photographer. He didn't know what appointment he was missing because she looked in his eyes with humor, good grace, and confident sexiness, and nothing made sense anymore.

It was in the fifth year of their romance, tucked away in a little chalet in the Adirondacks, that he'd asked her to marry him. Ten months later he stood here, holding his Papa's face in his hands, wanting to say a million things, and only being able to utter the most inane of them all. "Tell me she's—"

"I will tell you no such thing."

Adrian dropped his hands and laughed. "Oh come _on!_ Just telling me she's beautiful isn't going to spoil anything. I already know!"

Kurt couldn't help but primp Adrian a bit more, tucking a curl that wasn't stray back into the short mass of tight ringlets that tickled at his ear. "She's radiant. She's excited. She thought she lost her ring." Kurt smiled then, remembering the flurry of white satin, a compact of eye shadow flying into the air when it occurred to her she didn't see it where she _swore_ she put it, and the resulting tears when it was, instead, right where she _did_ put it.

Adrian gasped and shot his attention into his dressing room. "Who has mine? Did Alec grab it?"

"He's your best man. I'm sure he has it."

Blaine ducked out of the dressing room, his white battalion chief's hat firmly in hand. "We all ready for this dog and pony show?"

"Have you seen my ring?"

"It's where it belongs." Blaine put on his hat. "Promise." He tightened it down onto his head with a practiced nudge of the bill and back band and looked up to Kurt. "Straight?"

"Not since I've known you, no." Kurt beamed, grateful for a joke to carry him through the hitch in his breath whenever he saw Blaine in full dress.

Blaine grinned and looked at his son, brushing non-existent lint from his lapel. "Rumor has it, Mr. Hummel, this kid here wants to get married today."

"What? He's just a _child_."

"Is this what you two are doing now? Because I'm already a wreck. I could go steal a nip from Alec's flask or something."

"Stay. We'll behave." Kurt fussed with Adrian's boutonniere again, and pressed his hands onto his chest, taken again with how broad he was. He had his mother's height and copper-brown hair. But his build and eyes were all Dad. And his person? His being, his heart? His heart was hammered from the metal of a boy who soaked in his surroundings only to return everything good and true back to those around him.

"I love you, Adrian."

"I love you too, Papa."

Kurt leaned in and softly kissed Adrian's cheek. "I'm off to tend to the girls one last time." He kissed Blaine and thumped the top of his hat. "You still take my breath away."

"See you up there, Beautiful."

They watched Kurt leave and stood with their hands in their pockets, shifting foot to foot. Blaine ached with want to say something genius. Something meaningful. Something to carry his son into the next phase of his life. He'd start and stop and want to mention Maggie, but knew Adrian's memory of her now was only in flashes of light, more settled in photos and videos of her than the real living, breathing being that bore him, that loved him first.

She was in his bones, in the structure of who he was, but his upbringing was of Kurt and Blaine. And the thought of Kurt, of what his life, of what Adrian's life would have been without him—unimaginable. So to speak of Maggie and not Kurt—

He took a deep breath. "I'm not good at the big speeches. You know this."

"I don't need a big speech, Dad. You've—I've—" Adrian huffed and gestured down the hall where Kurt had just left. "You've lived your speech."

"She's so lucky to have you."

"If our love story can be half as grand as yours and Papa's… " Adrian pulled his dad into a hug then, laughing when his hat popped off of his head and tumbled to the floor.

Alec hit the bottom stair as they broke apart and slapped Adrian on the back. "Okay, Ade. I got the signal. It's time."

****

"This really was a genius idea." Adrian reached up to read another tagged ornament on the Christmas tree centered in the reception hall.

Elianna, newly married and crowned with a wreath of flowers and holly berries, fingered at Adrian's hair. "Marrying you? Yes… absolute genius."

He leaned down to kiss her and lifted a brow when she only responded with a tender peck and a soft push back. "They haven't rung for a kiss yet."

Adrian smiled and kissed her forehead. "We're married. We don't need anyone's permission." He pulled her in close with one arm as they focused back on the tree.

In place of a traditional unity candle during the ceremony, Adrian and Elianna's parents placed an ornament on the tree that had familial meaning—a blending of the families into new traditions. As the evening progressed, guests brought their own offerings, loading it with all manner of symbols, adornments and in-jokes-made-decorations.

A zigzag of deep red ribbon swathed throughout the tree, broken only by a foot-long chain of what appeared to be bracelets: gold, silver, leather and braided floss. Adrian waved his dad over and ran a finger down the bangles. "Mom's?"

"Yes. Papa sent them to a jeweler to make a chain." He cocked his head at them reflecting the twinkle lights as they swayed in the branches. "A little awkward maybe?"

"No, they're perfect," Elianna said. "Although I think we're going to need to spend some time swapping stories." Her eyes darted from ornament to ornament. "I don't know what half of these mean… " Her attention drew to a peculiar creature, blue with a green head and four arms. As she peeked closer, she giggled at the spiked-toothed heart on his chest. "Ade?"

Adrian plucked the miniature stuffed doll from the tree and the stories began with Kurt joining in. They began with Lizzie's story, and continued on about why a peach mattered and why a pumpkin donut caused a groan of discomfort.

The numerous fire engines and turnout gear made sense. A trucker hat from Finn and Carole fit in perfectly. Palettes and tiny easels for Adrian, computers and book replicas for Elianna. The pickle Adrian found, hung by someone in Elianna's family, gave pause until she explained that the first person to find the pickle got a special gift from Santa.

Adrian, Blaine and Kurt all quirked their eyebrows at her and she laughed. "This is my _grandfather's_ story. Behave."

Adrian swiped the glass of wine from Kurt's hand and smirked. "It's my wedding night. I will do no such thing."

Elie told of all the animals her family had over the years, represented in glass and miniature stuffed form, from cows and pigs to house pets and an iguana named Egbert.

"He didn't enjoy sleeping in my bed." She walked around the tree to find more treasures and peeked back mocking the slackened face of a dead animal, tongue hanging out and all. "Apparently."

At the back of the tree, near the top, they found a street sign that Adrian and a neighbor of Grandma Anderson's stole one evening during a visit during his teen years. Adrian grabbed it and tried, with no success, to hide it in his pocket. "I'm gonna kill him."

"Central Avenue? Dude." Blaine reached into Adrian's jacket and pulled the sign out to inspect it. "At Central and McConnell?"

"Balsley."

"McConnell would have been more impressive."

Kurt and Elie shared a look mumbling to themselves about the delinquents and jackasses they'd married.

The tree was _loaded_. A few families filled it in with simple balls and bells, 1 st year of marriage memorabilia, basic ornaments that somehow grounded it all. The every day. The mundane. The still-so-important essentials to making a marriage work.

And placed at the top as a surprise to the bride and groom, was a beautifully lit star given by both families during the ceremony. It was a Moravian star with a multitude of points and dimensions, easily representing the multitude of laughing stars of those who had gone before: Maggie, Burt, Lizzie, Elie's grandfather, of the pickle story, who looked down to bless the love of Adrian and Elianna.

"You, only you, will have stars that can laugh." The memory of his mother might only be a flash of light, but Adrian would never forget.

"Welcome to the family, Elie." Kurt kissed away the happy tear that streamed down her cheek and stepped aside for Blaine to do the same.

She looked up to the star and sighed, grabbing Adrian's hand. "I feel like I have a lot to live up to."

"No, sweetheart." Blaine looped a finger into Maggie's bracelet chain, setting it off to sway in the tree lights. "You have a lot to live _for._ "

**Author's Note:**

> Head on back to my tumblr to see images of my vision of our bride and groom. Yes, that means Adrian all grown-up. Spoiler alert: he's hot. So is his wife.
> 
> A handy shortcut: http://66.media.tumblr.com/e8c346a85e5303f7083916c24404c2e7/tumblr_inline_nh5dg0Nakv1r3wgne.jpg


End file.
